In between my daily chores around the old workplace today, I've been trying to keep an eye on the iBlabber regarding the announcements yesterday with the iPhone.
Shocking that there was no announcements regarding the availability of using Lotus Domino as a corporate back end solution for the device. But then I got to thinking about it. Yes, the iPhone is sexy and cool. Yes, I can download and manage my playlists to the device and watch movies on it. Yes, I can surf the web on the device and it looks really cool. But, why would I need to do that on my iPod? Is the iPhone really just that big of a contender in this corporate space? I've been in charge of the handheld infrastructure in my company for several years now and when it boils down to ease of use and management, the BlackBerry has everyone else beat HANDS DOWN. I can't think of a better device that serves 2 purposes: make phone calls and do email. The freakin BlackBerry has a real keyboard, not the touch screen of a iPhone. It integrates with Lotus Domino so easily it's scary. The security is there so if someone has lost theres, you can kill it from afar. So screw Apple, BlackBerry's are better!
But then I got to thinking why is everyone on the chip that Apple and IBM didn't hop in the sack together and bang out some sort of connection between the two? Who knows. And why is the Lotus Domino blogging community ticked off about it? Well, my thought is that we see ourselves very much in the same light as the world looks at a Mac. We are free spirited and open to new ideas. We have a very renegade/rebel attitude towards what we do and how we do it. And every January, we get together and drink a lot of beer together, being as surly as possible. IBM seems to understand that. They have made great leaps and bounds to show that they are not tied down with a single operating system for end-users. I thought Apple understood that way of thinking too and would have openly embraced Lotus as a natural fit over Activesync. But they didn't and again, Domino wasn't invited to the dance. Don't get me wrong, I too have iPhone envy. I would love one. They need to move off of AT&T, but I would like one. I'm thinking that it's a real shame that outside of Ed, (who I'm sure saw that announcement yesterday and knew at that point it was going to be a long week), it's pretty quiet on the IBM front regarding what, if anything, is being done about it.
What say you Big Blue?
1 comment:
Good title for the post. I think the biggest problem here is one of perception. When the CxO's have buddies getting their mail and pim sync to their iPhone they get a little iPhone envy and then IBM looks foolish (even if it's not IBM's fault!)
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